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Administrative affairs | Engineering | Environment | Honors and awards | News releases | Research | Science | UW News blog

February 15, 2018

Five UW scientists awarded Sloan Fellowships for early-career research

Five faculty members at the University of Washington have been awarded early-career fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The new Sloan Fellows, announced Feb. 15, include Maya Cakmak, assistant professor of computer science and engineering; Jiun-Haw Chu, assistant professor of clean energy and physics; Arka Majumdar, assistant professor of electrical engineering and physics; Jessica Werk, assistant professor of astronomy; and Chelsea Wood, assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.

Arts and entertainment | Uncategorized

February 14, 2018

Arts Roundup: Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, Jerusalem Quartet, and Feathers of Fire: A Persian Epic

This week in the arts, aboard the S.S. American with the Musical Theater Program’s “Anything Goes,” listen to the Jerusalem Quartet’s warm, full sound, and see a Persian epic portrayed on stage with music and shadow-puppetry.

Engineering | News releases | Research | Science

Hybrid optics bring color imaging using ultrathin metalenses into focus

In a paper published Feb. 9 in Science Advances, scientists at the University of Washington announced that they have successfully combined two different imaging methods — a type of lens designed for nanoscale interaction with lightwaves, along with robust computational processing — to create full-color images.

Arts and entertainment

February 7, 2018

Arts Roundup: Dance Majors Concert, Modern Music Ensemble, Intersections Pre-Concert Lecture, and more

This week in the arts, experience modern dance from a fresh and youthful perspective, hear UW’s modern music ensemble and top auditioned choirs, listen to a pre-show lecture by UW Germanics professor, see British pianist Imogen Cooper perform her classical repertoire, and aboard the S.S. American with the Musical Theater program’s performance of “Anything Goes!”

Administrative affairs | Buildings and grounds | Environment | UW and the community | UW News blog

February 6, 2018

University of Washington, other leading research universities form international coalition to speed local climate action

The University of Washington joins 12 other leading North American research universities in the new University Climate Change Coalition, or UC3, a group committed to leveraging its research and resources to help communities accelerate climate action.

Learning | News releases | Research | Science | Technology | UW and the community

Watery worlds: UW astronomer Eric Agol assists in new findings of TRAPPIST-1 planetary system

A team of astronomers including Eric Agol of the University of Washington has found that the seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1 are all made mostly of rock, and some could even have more water — which can give life a chance — than Earth itself. The research was led by Simon Grimm of the University of Bern in Switzerland, and published Feb. 5 in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. Agol is among about two dozen co-authors. The scientists…

Arts and entertainment

February 1, 2018

Arts Roundup: 12 Ophelias (a play with broken songs), Music of Today, and Faculty Recital with Craig Sheppard

This week in the arts, discover a re-imaged world of Hamlet as part of the School of Drama’s mainstage season, listen to new music by emerging artists, and hear the chair of the UW piano program perform a fugal composition.

Environment | Research | Science | UW and the community | UW News blog

UW’s large research vessel, R/V Thomas G. Thompson, gets back to work

After an “extreme makeover” that went from stem to stern on five decks of the ship, the R/V Thomas G. Thompson is ready to get back to work exploring the world’s oceans. The University of Washington’s School of Oceanography, part of the College of the Environment, operates the 274-foot ship, which arrived on campus in 1991. In summer 2016, with funding from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation and the UW, the vessel headed to a…

Engineering | News releases | Research | Science | Technology

January 31, 2018

University of Washington, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory team up to make the materials of tomorrow

The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington announced the creation of the Northwest Institute for Materials Physics, Chemistry and Technology — or NW IMPACT — a joint research endeavor to power discoveries and advancements in materials that transform energy, telecommunications, medicine, information technology and other fields.

News releases | Research | Social science

Reconstructing an ancient lethal weapon

    Archaeologists are a little like forensic investigators: They scour the remains of past societies, looking for clues in pottery, tools and bones about how people lived, and how they died. And just as detectives might re-create the scene of a crime, University of Washington archaeologists have re-created the weapons used by hunter-gatherers in the post-Ice Age Arctic some 14,000 years ago. Looking for clues as to how those early people advanced their own technology, researchers also considered what…

Official notices | UW and the community

January 30, 2018

Official notice: Action on UW Bothell/Cascadia College Campus Master Plan

Notice is given under SEPA, RCW 43.21C.080, that the University of Washington Board of Regents, to the action described below on Jan. 11, 2018. Any action to set aside, enjoin, review or otherwise challenge such action on the grounds of noncompliance with the provisions of Chapter 43.21C RCW (State Environmental Policy Act) shall be commenced on or before Feb. 13, 2018. Description of agency action: Approval by the Board of Regents of the 2017 UW Bothell and Cascadia College Campus…

News releases | Social science | UW and the community

Depression, anxiety affect more than one-fourth of state’s college students

  Nearly one-third of Washington college students have experienced depression in the last year, and more than 10 percent have had thoughts of suicide, according to a new survey of young adults attending schools around the state. The survey of more than 10,000 students at 13 of Washington’s two- and four-year institutions shows the need for mental health services on campus, advocates say, especially as the state Legislature considers two bills that would fund suicide-prevention resources in higher education and…

Education | Learning | News releases | Politics and government | Research | Social science | UW and the community

January 25, 2018

Dan Berger discusses excesses of incarceration in new book ‘Rethinking the American Prison Movement’

Dan Berger, associate professor in the UW Bothell School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, discusses his new book, “Rethinking the American Prison Movement.”

Arts and entertainment

January 24, 2018

Arts Roundup: Watch performances by Garrick Ohlsson, Danish String Quartet, 12 Ophelias, Jazz Innovations, and revisit memories through craft sculptures at ArtVenture

This week in the arts, revisit important memories through craft sculptures, see a re-imagined and contemporized Hamlet, hear a collection of Nordic folk music or student ensembles playing original progressive jazz compositions, and listen to a Seattle favorite return to Meany, bringing piano masterworks to life.

Engineering | News releases | Research | Science

#MemoriesInDNA Project wants to store your photos in DNA for the benefit of science – and future generations

Researchers from the Molecular Information Systems Lab at the University of Washington and Microsoft are looking to collect 10,000 original images from around the world to preserve them indefinitely in synthetic DNA manufactured by Twist Bioscience. DNA holds promise as a revolutionary storage medium that lasts much longer and is many orders of magnitude denser than current technologies.

Environment | Research | Science | UW News blog

Q&A: Forgotten fish illustrator remembered through first publication

More than three centuries ago, a French monk made thousands of drawings of plants and animals, traveling under the authority of King Louis XIV to the French Antilles to collect and document the natural history of the islands. These drawings were often the first ever recorded for each species and were completed in remarkable detail. The illustrations were nearly lost forever during the tumultuous French Revolution, and the volumes compiled by Father Charles Plumier were discovered by chance, found serving…

Environment | Research | Science | Social science | UW News blog

Civil War-era U.S. Navy ships’ logs to be explored for climate data, maritime history

A new grant will let a University of Washington-based project add a new fleet to its quest to learn more about past climate from the records of long-gone mariners. The UW is among the winners of the 2017 “Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives” awards, announced Jan. 4 by the Washington, D.C.-based Council on Library and Information Resources. The new $482,018 grant to the UW, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration and the National Archives Foundation will support “Seas…

Arts and entertainment

January 17, 2018

Arts Roundup: Performances by Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, UW Symphony, Scholarship Chamber Group and more

This week in the arts, watch dancers tell a story of resilience in their final performance of an exciting trilogy, become enchanted by the UW Symphony at Benaroya Hall, and see undergraduate students perform challenging works from the piano and strings repertoire.

Environment | News releases | Research | Science

Scale-eating fish adopt clever parasitic methods to survive

A small group of fishes — possibly the world’s cleverest carnivorous grazers — feeds on the scales of other fish in the tropics. A team led by biologists at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories is trying to understand these scale-feeding fish and how this odd diet influences their body evolution and behavior.

Engineering | News releases | Research | Science

Researchers program biomaterials with ‘logic gates’ that release therapeutics in response to environmental triggers

Drug treatments can save lives, but sometimes they also carry unintended costs. After all, the same therapeutics that target pathogens and tumors can also harm healthy cells. To reduce this collateral damage, scientists have long sought specificity in drug delivery systems: A package that can encase a therapeutic and will not disgorge its toxic cargo until it reaches the site of treatment — be it a tumor, a diseased organ or a site of infection. In a paper published Jan….

News releases | Research | Social science

A ‘touching sight’: How babies’ brains process touch builds foundations for learning

  Touch is the first of the five senses to develop, yet scientists know far less about the baby’s brain response to touch than to, say, the sight of mom’s face, or the sound of her voice. Now, through the use of safe, new brain imaging techniques, University of Washington researchers provide one of the first looks inside the infant’s brain to show where the sense of touch is processed — not just when a baby feels a touch to…

News releases | Politics and government | Social science | UW and the community

January 11, 2018

Can the president really do that? Two UW law professors give answers in new book

Can the president single-handedly toss out environmental rules designed to combat global warming? Force states like Washington to help enforce federal immigration laws? Fire Robert Mueller? No, no, and not directly, say Lisa Manheim and Kathryn Watts, professors of law at the University of Washington, in a new book. The answers, of course, are more complicated than a word or two. But every news cycle seems to raise a variation of the same question: Can he do that? Manheim and Watts,…